Punjabi Thali - Tribute to Chef Ranveer Brar

As we continue on with our Weekend Thali Project, we decided to cook up a Punjabi Thali this time around. But not just any ordinary Punjabi Thali - we decided to make things even more interesting by cooking the entire thali following Chef Ranveer Brar’s recipes!! Why?? Well we started watching Chef Ranveer’s videos on YouTube this year and discovered that they are by far some of the most entertaining Indian culinary videos we have encountered - filled with fun facts, cool tips, humor and charm. While we had tried a recipe or two before successfully, we really wanted to test out more of his recipes to see if all of them would end up as tasty as they looked!! And boy were we left STUNNED!! Each and every dish came out just FANTASTIC!!

Since this is not a sponsored post and we checked with Chef Ranveer’s team on how to stay within the copyright limitations, we are linking to Chef Ranveer’s website for each of the recipes below. We highly recommend that you try these recipes at least once by following it to the letter!! A few words of caution though before you start (1) there are high chances that you will end up binge-watching Chef Ranveer’s YouTube videos, forget all about cooking and end up ordering in pizza instead AND (2) when you finally do end up cooking, you may get too carried away and cook up way more dishes than you can eat!!! Phir aap bologe ki Priya aur Vikram aapne bataya nahi (true Chef Ranveer fan’s will get this inside joke).

Ok then, let’s get this party started…

Amritsari Choley - Chana Masala has always been a staple at our home but following Chef Ranveer’s recipe took the dish to an entirely new level. The addition of crushed pomegranate seeds was an eye-opening revelation!! How did we not know this until now??!!

Punjabi Pakoda Kadhi - No surprises here. A simple and satisfying dish, there is nothing quite like Kadhi Chawal when you crave comfort food. We did make the Pakodas in the Air Fryer instead of deep frying them.

Kadai Paneer - We hit the jackpot with this recipe!! Personally, I have never been able to master a paneer gravy recipe. But the freshly ground Kadai Masala Powder in this recipe added so much flavor and depth to the paneer. While it came out pretty awesome the very first time, can’t wait to make it a few more times and perfect it.

Paneer Tikka - This recipe teaches you how to make Paneer Tikka and also Achari Paneer Tikka. We made the simple Paneer Tikka this time around. I loved the tip on how to smoke the paneer by adding ghee to a hot coal and enclosing this with the paneer.

Sarson ka saag - Have to confess, this was not made exactly as the recipe. While we found the mustard greens, we couldn’t find all the other types of greens that this recipe called for. So we had to substitute them with spinach. But even with this substitution, it turned out quite tasty. Though we will be honest, the amount of butter that this recipe called for, anything would taste good!!

Punjabi Chicken Curry - The standing joke in our house is that whenever we invite friends over for dinner, Vikram’s one chicken curry dish will definitely and completely overshadow the 4 to 5 vegetarian dishes I would have spent hours making. His chicken curry gets requested for during Thanksgiving dinners and we have friends who have flown in from Philadelphia making the request for his chicken curry (though in this case I think they also came to visit us and not just to eat the dish ;-)). So for him to try this recipe and say that it was a game changer was definitely saying something.

Amritsari Fish - This recipe video clarified the fact that Amritsari fish is not the same as the fish pakoda! Easy to make, this is the Punjabi twist to Fish and Chips and as expected this was our daughter’s favorite dish out of the entire menu.

Kada Prasad - As an engineering student, Vikram has fond memories helping out at the local Gurdwara and cooking free meals at the community kitchen or langar. So he was very excited to make this Kada Prasad (Wheat Halwa) since it took him down the memory lane. A sumptuous and tasty dessert, the one addition we made to the recipe was to add almond slivers.

Finally, we rounded up the Thali with Jeera Rice, Puri, Salad and a Carrot Achar.

Overall, I would call his Punjabi Thali a grand success. We had a great time researching (i.e. binge watching), cooking and eating absolutely yummy food. The Kadai Paneer, Amritsari Choley and Chicken Curry will definitely be new go to staples in our home. Also had to work out for the entire week after eating all that rich food. But it was still totally worth it.